Chapter 85
Since we were on the topic, I asked a few more questions about him.
“Is your cousin a normal person? I heard there are quite a few Awakened among the Center’s research staff.”
“He probably received an E-grade Guide classification.”
Oh, as expected. But E-grade means he has almost no guiding ability.
As if reading my thoughts, Song Ji-hyeok continued.
“He’s useless as a Guide, but he’s been incredibly smart since childhood. After awakening, he became obsessed with Guide research, dove deep into it, and I heard the Center scouted him first.”
“That’s impressive.”
So he’s not just handsome in appearance but also has a brilliant mind. There was a reason he had a team leader title at such a young age.
“Anyway, he must have been really happy to see you.”
“As I said, he was clinging to me asking to have a meal together, but then he got dragged away by other people.”
I could imagine that scene and laughed again. Then suddenly a thought struck me.
‘Wait. If he’s the guiding research team leader, maybe…’
But I couldn’t dwell on that thought for long because Song Ji-hyeok spoke again.
“Senior.”
“Uh, what?”
“What are you thinking about in the middle of eating?”
“…Nothing. It’s nothing.”
I flashed a brief smile and focused back on the meal. I completely erased Jung Seok-hoon from my mind. It was just a thought born from my own impatience, and I had no intention of actually seeking him out.
“I’ll buy the coffee.”
I said as we finished our meal and stood up. While it wasn’t exactly food coma, I did feel a bit drowsy with a full stomach.
‘What should I get?’
As I walked leisurely, recalling the cafe menu, my device suddenly rang, adding to the tension. It was the third notification with the same content.
[All Awakened who are not at the site and have received this contact, please gather in the grand conference hall by 2 PM today.]
Song Ji-hyeok checked his device as well and asked me.
“Do you know what this is about?”
“It’s probably about the Regular dungeon.”
Most dungeons are randomly generated and disappear when the boss mob is defeated. But unusually, there are dungeons that continue to appear in the same place periodically, which we call Regular dungeons.
Since we have prior information, most are handled easily, but there are also places that require thorough preparation even with advance knowledge. The dungeon causing this call was a prime example of that.
After returning to the Guild, Song Ji-hyeok and I went up to the office and sat for a while before heading to the grand conference hall with our team members. When we arrived, the room was already crowded with people who had come before us.
“Ugh, the smell of sweat.”
Baek Sun-jong, sensitive to smells, covered his nose and slightly wrinkled his forehead. I couldn’t really smell anything, but I did feel overwhelmed by the invisible energy emanating from the robust Espers.
I could feel some of their gazes directed this way—or more precisely, towards Song Ji-hyeok. Most expressions showed curiosity, but some seemed to be evaluating or wary.
It’s a mistake to think all Espers are friendly to each other. Competition and performance exist in this field too, and there’s covert rivalry between teams.
Song Ji-hyeok didn’t care at all. He cracked his neck expressionlessly and just looked at his phone with a bored expression.
Standing beside him, I looked around. Seeing well-known senior Espers who occasionally appear on TV positioned here and there, I was newly impressed by our Guild’s strength.
Having finished with his phone, Song Ji-hyeok turned off the screen and spoke to me.
“There are so many damn people.”
“It’s because it’s the only near-S-grade Regular dungeon.”
I recalled the related materials I had just looked up in the office.
There’s a dungeon that regenerates on a two-year cycle in the northern coastal region of Gyeonggi Province. It’s so notorious that it’s currently the only one in Korea that requires a Guild alliance expedition and even mobilizes Guides to the site.
According to reports, despite being a Regular dungeon, it has many variables. The dungeon’s terrain and monsters change each time, so despite thorough preparations, there are always significant casualties. The last Esper from our Guild who died was in that dungeon two years ago.
Until now, I had been excluded from selection, and shamefully, I was more grateful than disappointed about that exclusion. With my grade and skills, I wasn’t qualified to even approach the entrance boundary line of the dungeon, let alone enter it.
But now the situation had changed. While I was still a Dual C-grade, as the pair Guide to Song Ji-hyeok, an S-grade Esper, I would accompany him to the site.
So my feelings about being in the grand conference hall right now… To be really honest, I couldn’t help but worry. I had gritted my teeth to endure the maze-type dungeon before, but I couldn’t even imagine what a dungeon with monsters one level higher would be like. No, the truth was I didn’t want to imagine it at all. Especially since the lowest grade of monsters in the dungeon two years ago was B-grade, one hit could be fatal for me.
‘No wonder my salary increased several times.’
Thanks to this, I newly realized the obvious logic—just how significant and weighty the position of pair Guide to an S-grade Esper is.
Shortly after, as the Support Director took the microphone, the commotion in the hall quickly subsided. Then, like passing a baton, the Deputy Guild Master stepped onto the platform.
Even from quite a distance, the Deputy Guild Master’s unique aura remained strong. However, given the gravity of the matter, his voice seemed more calm and solemn than usual.
In the atmosphere of subtle tension, I focused my attention on the Deputy Guild Master like an obedient model student. Of the several minutes of discourse, there were two things I needed to remember.
First, we would gather and depart at 2 PM the next day, and second… The Deputy Guild Master emphasized once more:
“Indulge your recklessness and pride to your heart’s content in front of me, and please return safely. I wish you all good luck.”
To return safely.
I was given a mission that I desperately hoped for but couldn’t guarantee.
***
I had trouble sleeping at night both the next day and the day after. The reason was obviously concern about the Regular dungeon.
After the gathering two days ago, I headed to the guiding room and immediately accessed the Guild’s information program. It wasn’t difficult to examine the content as not only the report from two years ago but all previous records were still available.
After reading a few lines on the laptop screen, I printed it out and read it thoroughly. As time passed, the emotion that deepened was fear.
The report listed only objective facts without any subjective views, which made the battle scene seem even more vivid. Whenever I saw words like “joint attack failure,” “attack failure,” “retreat”—terms rarely seen in other reports—I felt emotional disturbance. Especially when I saw the words “Esper death,” I momentarily felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I wondered if I had been too complacent all this time, considering that life and death hang by a thread in such places, or if I was worrying too much about something that hadn’t happened yet… But even as I pondered, the merciless time continued to flow, and the morning of our departure to the site dawned.
As usual, our team first gathered in the office and then moved together to the first floor. When we went outside, Awakened who had completed all preparations were gathered in small groups.
The atmosphere was better than I expected. Whatever they felt inside, they appeared relaxed on the outside and even joked around, making me think they weren’t A-grade Espers for nothing.
The same went for the Guides. Unlike Espers who are absent from their posts 300 days a year, Guides might go to the field only once or twice a year, yet everyone seemed quite composed and calm.
Perhaps because most of them were experienced.
I heard there were only four people, including Song Ji-hyeok and me, who would be going to this dungeon for the first time. There were even fewer Awakened below A-grade, just two, and one of them was me, of course.
The other person…
‘There he is.’
Just then, I spotted Jeon Hyeon-wook standing with a slightly hunched posture.
Just as I had the crucial task of being the pair Guide to Song Ji-hyeok, who would be central to this battle, I understood that Jeon Hyeon-wook had also been given a weighty mission. That was to use his blocking skill to protect the Guides who would remain at the base camp.
“What are you doing?”
When I turned my head, Song Ji-hyeok was looking at me. I smiled awkwardly, saying it was nothing, and he asked another question. However, this question was somewhat out of the blue.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Now?”
“Now or later.”
“Not particularly…”
“Just tell me one thing.”
After briefly thinking about this sudden mission, I mentioned the food that came to mind most vividly.
“Spicy chicken?”
“You mean the one that comes sprinkled with cream puffs, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Okay, noted. …You look worried, but don’t be. I’ll bring you back in one piece and let you eat all the delicious food you want.”
